NOTES OF CASES
| Published date | 01 July 1945 |
| Date | 01 July 1945 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2230.1945.tb02708.x |
I58
MODERN LAW REVIEW
July,
1945
No
mention has been made
in
this article of circumstances
in
which, for practical
reasons
relating to evidence, the .discretion of
the court,
or
costs, it may be desirable under the present law to allege
the revival of condoned adultery even where there is a subsequent
ground
for divorce. The fiction, if there would
be
one
in
such cases,
would
be
of
no
general social significance. The facts giving rise
to
the doctrine of revival under the modem law are not likely to
be
of
frequent occurrence in actual cases because of the likelihood of their
being
accompanied by conduct which is, or may become, through the
efflux of time, ground for divorce.
It
will, however, be interesting
to
see
whether
Higgins
v.
Higgins
and
BanisteldS
meaqs the revival
of
a
fiction which some may have thought to
be
dead, or whether
Airrlcy
v.
AinlcyW
is
another nail in its coiiin.
RUPERT
CROSS
Supra.
-
Supra.
NOTES
OF
CASES
Spiritmbm
and
th@
Law
(I)
The
Wifchcrufl
Acf
(1735)
:
9
Geo.
2
Cup.
5
The recent conviction of Helen Duncan under this Act, and perhaps even
more the judgment
of
the Court
of
Appeal, have caused no little uneasiness
to
those
who
are interested in civil liberties and particularly religious
freedom.
Mrs.
Duncan who
is
a
resident
of
Edinburgh,
is
what
is
known
as
a
physical medium, that
is,
it
is claimed that under certain conditions in
her presence the spirits of deceased persons appear with materialised
bodies (sometimes clad
as
during life on earth), which are recognised and
speak in their own voices to their relatives and friends. One
of
these
conditions
is
that all light should
be
shut out
of
the room except
a
dull
red
light similar to but rather better than that used in
a
dark room for
developing photographic plates and films. The medium after being stripped
and searched by
a
committee
of
women
is
dressed in
a
special suit, brought
into the room and placed in
a
wooden chair behind curtains. The figures
then appear between the curtains and sometimes come out clear and talk
to their friends.
On 17th January,
1944,
such
a
s6ance was in progress
at
Portsmouth in
the house
of
a
retail chemist named Homer, when by arrangement with
the police
a
war reserve policeman named Cross dived
at
the figure
th-r
appearing and claimed that he found Mrs. Duncan in his grasp and that
a
white shroud with which she was covered was torn from his grasp and
disappeared. Detective Inspector Ford appeared on the scene by arrange-
ment and arrested hlrs. Duncan. but in spite of appeals refused to have her
or those present searched for the white sheet. Mrs. Duncan was taken into
custody, bail being refused. She
was
charged before the magistrates under
Sect.
4
of the Vagrancy Act,
1824,
which reads:
“Every person pretending or professing to tell fortunes or using
any subtle craft, means or device, by palmistry or otherwise to
To continue reading
Request your trial